Grand Rapids’ Schauer is healthy and hungry this season

As the 2017-18 wrestling regular season wound down, Grand Rapids’ Kellen Schauer couldn’t have asked for better circumstances. Ranked as high as third among 138-pounders, he had won 50 matches without a single loss.

Then, near the end of the Thunderhawks’ first postseason practice, Schauer was grappling with a teammate when he “landed funny.” Only it wasn’t the “ha ha” kind of funny, but rather the “uh oh” kind.

A junior at the time, Schauer would learn he had a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. Compounding the ill-timed injury: Schauer is left-handed. Meaning that arm is a biggie. And while things could have been worse — initial fears centered on a broken arm or dislocated elbow — Schauer wasn’t anywhere close to 100 percent when it mattered most, including the state tournament.